Panelists at the Airforwarders Association meeting at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport this week addressed the question of how to handle too much air cargo in a limited amount of space, according to a report from Air Cargo World.
Surging e-commerce cargo is causing infrastructure headaches at Sea-Tac.
E-commerce has increased cargo volumes to a point where some
airports are questioning how to handle all the cargo.
A panel at the Airforwarders Association’s (AfA) regional
meeting at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) earlier this week faced
the question of how handle too much cargo, according to a report from industry news outlet Air Cargo World.
“Sea-Tac’s current infrastructure wasn’t built for it to be
a hub, but e-commerce is making it one,” said Jason Berry, managing director of
cargo at Alaska Airlines.
The infrastructure challenges begin “long before the
carriers receive the cargo,” said Matt Hodson, vice president of operations
with trucking company Summit NW Corp., according to Air Cargo World.
“Inefficiencies
at the airport leave truck drivers idling for hours, especially when the cargo
is destined for a carrier that doesn’t handle its own cargo. These delays often
force the driver to track down individual customer service agents for every
airline transporting the cargo,” he said.
Logistics issues arise once the cargo arrives at the
airport, due to lack of space. According to Air Cargo World, panelist Patrick
Eaton, the general manager for Swissport Cargo Services at Sea-Tac, said that “Swissport
and other ground handlers at the airport contribute to slowdowns for trucks
arriving at the airport because they are trying to deal with too much cargo and
too many airlines in too little space.”
However, allowing for additional cargo space may be
impossible due to “the geographical constraints of the region,” said Tom Green,
senior manager for air cargo development with the Port of Seattle. The three main
ground handlers at Sea-Tac, Swissport, WFS and Hanjin Global Logistics,
generally dominate the market, due to the lack of space.
Furthermore, despite
the airport expansion master plan currently underway, most of the additional
space will be utilized on the passenger side, “possibly at the expense of
cargo,” noted Green.
Nevertheless, Green asked AfA meeting members to “go to Port
Commission meetings and comment on the importance of air cargo at Sea-Tac,” as air
cargo accounted for 35 percent of global trade value in 2015, said Air Cargo
World.
Brandon Fried, executive director at the AfA, thinks the
best short-term solution is improving the process of screening cargo by utilizing
a third party, private sector canine method which “could reduce bottlenecks
significantly,” he noted.